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Why US expats go cold TURKEY in Switzerland

Because not only don't the Swiss give thanks (yeah, we seem to take everything for granted around here), but there is

no NFL

no Presidential Turkey Pardon

no Macy's Parade

no (ingredients for) cute snacks

no Black Friday

But let's start at the beginning, it all started earlier today on Facebook (where else):

For those who can't just recall the Mission Impossible soundtrack, there you go:

Now I can't speak from personal experience, but I hear every expat complaining about the absurd price for a whole turkey in Switzerland. Let's take Trailing Wife Mrs Campbell - she prefers to spend Thanksgiving back home, and I can't blame her. The ingredients she is listing that are hard - if not impossible - to purchase around here are only random examples.

Just take the lovely maple leaf sandwich cookiesbelow. The recipe requested Mapleine - an item you just grab from the baking ingredient aisle of your local Walmart. After hours and hours of browsing websites that might ship to Switzerland and spending about 100 bucks on American Food Avenue for stuff I didn't really need - but no Mapleine- I had to befriend the author of the recipe, bribe her with Swiss chocolate, and she took pity in me. A week or so later I got some in the mail.

Back to the turkey topic. Meat in Switzerland is beyond expensive in general, this is why my Southern Californian friend Crystal thought it was a good idea to go groceries shopping in France. Read about the price she paid.

Even if you are willing to dig deep into your pockets, the adventure of getting your turkey can almost fail due to lack of vocabulary - happened to the lovely Cheryl from Seattle. Brave lady that she is, did she not only manage to purchase the ingredients for their dinner, but she also cooked what looks like a delicious meal.

Also my local friend Angela -originally from sunny Florida- got strange looks and comments when she put her turkey on the supermarket conveyor belt.

With Thursdays Sports Channel program preview

Detroit Lions against the Green Bay Packers

Dallas Cowboys doing battle with the Oakland Raiders

Pittsburgh Steelers meet the Baltimore Ravens

and the Thanksgiving supermarket scene from one of my favorite Meg Ryan movies I leave you for now.

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